It's Been Eight Years
by SilverDrama
Summary: Eight years ago Gracie Leanne Finnerty was born, Lily Finnerty went to college and never returned. Eight years later Lily returns and sends the family back into havoc.
1. Part 1

**It's Been Eight Years**

_By: SilverDrama_

**Summary:** Eight years ago Gracie Leanne Finnerty was born, Lily Finnery went to college and never returned. Eight years later Lily returns and sends the family back into havoc, but will her secret or herself shock her family more?

**Author's Note:** Okay, I totally loved Grounded For Life and I find it horrible that there aren't that many fics for it. So I am going to try making my own fic.

**Disclaimer:** I honestly do not own these characters, except my OC's

* * *

Gracie Leanne Finnerty looked up at the pictures sitting on her bedside table. There was one for each of her birthday, her actual birthday through her last birthday, which was when she turned eight a few months prior. She looked at one; it was the day she was born. There was Grandpa Walt and Grandma Maureen, Mommy and Daddy, there was Uncle Eddie and Brother Henry. There were three people she couldn't tell. One was a boy who looked somewhere from fifteen to eighteen, he was in her first, second, and third birthday pictures, then he disappeared, she slightly remembered, but only for a flash second, she knew him from family pictures to be Brother Jimmy. Then there were two other people. One was a girl; she had flaming red hair and a look of fierceness, even though she was smiling. Gracie realized that the red locks mirrored her own. She wondered who the girl was, she had seen pictures of her before, elsewhere, but when she asked who it was her parents said it was another story for another time. Gracie looked at the last person in the picture. She hadn't seen him elsewhere but that picture, though he did resemble slightly her annoying next door neighbors who didn't stop annoying her dad until they moved out two months earlier.

Six weeks after the O'Keefe's moved out, the Kindersons moved in. Gracie liked the Kindersons. They had a boy who was a year older than her, and two twin girls who were a year younger than her. They were also expecting a fourth child in three months. The boy that was older than Gracie was named Charles; well his parents called him that, though she called him Charlie. And Gracie had yet to learn what his younger sister's names were; they weren't home when her mom brought her over to say hi to the new neighbors.

Gracie flipped her head to the clock. 7:35, she was late for school. She gasped and flipped over her big room trying to find her lime green tennis shoes. Finally she found them under her bed where she found her backpack. Flinging it over her shoulders, she began to run downstairs.

"GRACIE! HURRY UP!" Her dad called.

"Coming." She said in her adorable voice as she flung down stairs and saw "cousin" Rose and "cousin" Geoffrey sitting on the couch. "Rose, Geoffy!" She exclaimed.

"GRACIE!" The five year old boy and seven year old girl exclaimed.

"Gracie, Grandpa Walt had to leave, so will you please make sure they get to their classes _not_ neat up??" Her dad asked.

Gracie nodded as she bent down to tie her shoes.

"Oh, and I told Mrs. Kinderson that you would walk with Charlie and, shit, I forgot their other kids' names." Gracie's mom told her.

Gracie, Rose, and Geoffrey all giggled.

"No swearing in front of the M-I-N-O-R-S'es Claudia." A voice came from the dining room. The young man walked, his black hair sticking to his head.

"UNCLE EDDIE!" Gracie shouted as she ran to him.

"What's up my little niece?" Eddie shouted in his normal state of stupor.

Gracie ran up to Eddie and hugged him. He picked her up. "You ready to cause trouble my little mischief maker?"

Gracie's dad looked up. "Eddie, what about your own kids, why don't they become your little mischief makers?"

"Because Sean, Gracie has mischief deep in her blood, and my kids are at school, I dropped them off before coming here."

"Why didn't you pick up Gracie, Rose, and Geoffrey?" Sean asked.

"Because it would've been out of my way."

"Our house is on the way to the school." Sean pointed out.

"Not if you make a stop along the way." Eddie said in an odd voice.

"Did you take your four year daughter and five year old son to a chop shop?" Sean asked his brother.

"Nah." Eddie replied.

"A porn shop?" Claudia intuitively asked.

"What is it with you and porn?" Eddie asked. Sean and Claudia glared at him. "I stopped at the police station to bust Henry out of jail."

"What did he do this time?" Claudia asked.

"Drunk-Driving." Eddie said.

"Well that isn't so bad. I mean, he turns twenty-one next week." Claudia said.

"It is when he's underage, he's way past the legal limit, and he's driving a boat he doesn't own." Eddie said.

Claudia groaned. "How much do I owe you for bail?" She asked grabbing her purse for a checkbook.

"It's on me."

Claudia glared at Eddie. "On what conditions?"

"What makes you think I want something?"

Claudia glared at Eddie even longer.

"Fine, I want you to take it calmly when I say that," Eddie ducked down to a whisper so that only Sean and Claudia could hear, "Lily sent me a letter, she wants to talk to you two."

Sean's eyes grew big, and Claudia's face grew pale.

"Who's Lily?" Rose asked Gracie, the three kids had managed to overhear the conversation.

"No clue." Gracie said. "But let's get to school." Gracie said, and the three kids left for school, Gracie still staring at her uncle and parents who were talking as she closed the door.

**…**

"Finnerty, Gracie."

"Here" Gracie nonchalantly responded.

"Fairbanks, Jessica."

"Here" A blonde hair girl responded.

Gracie sighed and looked to her right; a girl with black hair was staring out the window, fiddling her hair as she did so.

Gracie continued sitting down and thinking about the girl named Lily, she wondered who she was, Gracie couldn't figure it out. She spent so long thinking of scenarios that she didn't notice the class getting dismissed.

"Excuse me." The girl with black hair tapped Gracie on the shoulder.

Gracie awoke from her thoughts in a startle. "Huh?"

"Sorry," The girl said. "But you were asleep, or as good as, and I didn't want Sister Marianne to scold you."

"Oh," Gracie smiled. "Thanks. I'm Gracie Finnerty."

The black hair girl smiled. "I'm Michola Merionza."

Gracie smiled. "What did I miss?" Gracie asked.

Michola smiled. "Several hours of Sister Marianne talking about the school's rules and goals, and then telling us it was time for lunch."

Gracie looked at her. "Can I eat lunch with you?" She asked.

"Sure you can, but don't you have friends, I mean I hear you've been going here since pre-school." Michola said.

"I have, but my friends are my cousin Rose, and she's in second grade, and a boy named Jack, but he moved at the end of last year, so I don't have friends this year."

"Sure, you can sit with me." Michola said.

The two girls left eh classroom giggling and talking, they sat down together at lunch where Gracie found out that Michola had moved there a month earlier. She had moved in where Gracie's friend Jack lived, she used to live in Hawaii, Aiea, Michola told her. Michola also had a brother in the eighth grade, and a sister in the tenth grade. Gracie told Michola about her brothers and her Aunt Rhea and her Uncle Eddie, and her parents. Michola told Gracie about when she lived in Ohio; she told her about her friends, this little girl two year younger than her, she had red hair and a little brother with brown hair.

"Yeah, her name was Fiaree, she was so nice." Michola told her. "And she had the sweetest of parents. Her mom's name was Lily."

Gracie froze at the sound of Lily. How had she forgotten so fast talking to Michola, she made a mental note to ask her parents about Lily. "Awesome." Gracie said and the two became soaked in their conversation once more.

**…**

"Mom, I'm home!" Gracie said as she walked in.

"Hey Gracie." Her mom's face appeared. "How was third grade?"

"Awesome," Gracie said. "I made a new friend, her name is Michola, she's so nice, and the next door neighbor girls are so nice, their names are Victoire and Genevieve, but everyone calls them Vicky and Genny. Oh, and who's Lily?"

"Who?" Her mother obviously lied.

"Lily, Uncle Eddie mentioned her."

"Nobody," Her mother said.

The front door opened again and the red head from Gracie's photograph walked in. "Hey."

"Lily, it's been eight years." Gracie's mom said, shocked.

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**Author's Note:** Okay, I hope you liked, and I hope you review.  
Now just to get this straight. Gracie is eight and in the third grade, Michola is eight and in the third grade. Charlie is nine and in the fifth grade (he skipped a grade). Vicky and Genny are seven and in second grade. Rose is seven and in second grade. Geoffrey is five and in kindergarden. Eddie's five year old son is in kindergarden, and his daughter is in pre-school.

**_--Cherry The Black Weasel--_**


	2. Part 2

AN: I'm not very content with how I'm ending this, but I can't take not ending it, and I don't remember where I was going when I started this.

It's Been Eight Years

Chapter 2

Gracie looked up at the woman who had entered the door. She was obviously the Lily missing from her family after the picture since she born. The girl looked just like how Gracie had always imagined herself to look grown up. Pretty.

Lily walked in. "Is that my little sister?" She asked, pointing towards Gracie, looking at Claudia.

"Lily, we should talk in the kitchen." Claudia said.

Lily nodded and the two walked into the kitchen and Gracie plopped herself on the couch.

Uncle Eddie walked in. "Where's your mom?" He asked.

"Kitchen." Gracie said. "Talking with Lily."

"And you're not eavesdropping?"

Gracie looked up at him. "I can do that?"

"You have a lot to learn."

Eddie and Gracie stood, listening to the conversation at the other side of the kitchen door.

"Lily, where have you been?" Claudia's voice, recognizable through the door, asked.

"Well, Brad and I sort of moved to California."

"Why?"

"Well, do you remember how I always wanted to be an actress?" Lily asked.

"I thought you wanted to be a singer," Claudia chimmed in.

"That's not the point, I'm coming back now, nothing happened. Where's Jimmy and Henry?" Lily asked.

"Henry's hungover at your Uncle's house and Jimmy's" Claudia paused.

"Tell me." Lily said.

Gracie thought to herself how much she wished her mother would answer the question that she's been wondering herself.

"He's dead."

The truth isn't always the best, silence is golden.

AN: Not really happy with it, but it's the best I can think of, Jimmy has always been dead, since I started it, though, in my mind anyway.


	3. Part 3

It's Been Eight Years

Chapter 3

_It wasn't a bright night, it was rather dark. Henry wasn't quite sure how he had gotten Jimmy to come with him anyway, but either way, they were on the roof of St. Finnians. Eddie had described it as a gift to Gracie before entering school, but Jimmy knew it was just more shenanigans to pull. _

_Gracie wasn't starting St. Finnians for another two years but Henry had just graduated. Maybe that was why they were on the edge of the roof throwing Harry Potter posters, Satan paraphernalia, and a lefty stuff on the building and the ground. _

_Henry was throwing and taping posters and trash everywhere._

_Eddie was watch-dog._

_Jimmy was spray-painting from the roof. Maybe Henry could've stopped it, but there was a car that went by the school loudly, it honked it's horn at a cat in the road and Jimmy tumbled off in fright. Like a rag-doll._

Henry woke up from another bad dream.

AN: I'm not sure if I'll write much more, I can't remember the main story, it involved the school friends of Gracie's but I don't remember how. I did think I needed to tell you readers at least how Jimmy died.


End file.
